15 Torriano Cottages

House built in 1965-6 by Philip Pank for himself, his wife and family, extended in 1972 to include a studio and garage/bedsit.

The external walls are constructed of fair-faced Crowborough brick, with a timber frame in Jarrah, an Australian hardwood. The roof is asphalt, topped with a turfed and paved roof garden. The studio extension has a slate roof.

The single-storey house occupies a confined plot at the west end of a Victorian mews terrace, accessed from the south side. The first phase had a C-shaped plan with rooms arranged in a strict grid around a courtyard on the east. The entrance led into the kitchen and dining area on the south side, with bedrooms to the west and the living room to the north. The 1972 extension to the east, comprising the studio to the north and garage to the south, encloses the courtyard. The roof garden was turfed on the south and paved on the north, featuring a greenhouse (later converted to a bedroom) at the north west corner and a pergola at the north east. Shallow ponds were incorporated on the roof and in the courtyard.

The principal elevation faces south and features full-height glazing between the members of the timber frame, which consists of projecting posts and paired beams. A solid timber front door provides access, and the bed-sit extension to the right has its own glazed street access. The timber frame extends upward to form the balustrade of the rooftop garden.

The east elevation of the 1972 extension is brick with a dramatically curving parapet. A small high-level port-hole window and a large glazed arch doorway with red brick architraves open onto the garden. The north and west elevations are on the site boundary and are blank brick walls with no fenestration.

The elevations of the internal courtyard echo the street frontage, with full-height sliding windows; the timber structure extends higher to form a pergola on the north side of the roof garden. The greenhouse/bedroom has a glazed aluminium frame with an inverted pitched roof.

Internally, the timber structure is exposed throughout. External walls are fair-faced brick or full-height glazing, with timber floors and ceilings. Light and space are maximised for living areas, with views across the courtyard garden between rooms. The front bedroom and bedsit have full-height windows to the front garden. The middle two bedrooms have roof lights, and the rear bedroom borrows light from the greenhouse/bedroom above. Wooden fitted units divide the kitchen and dining room areas. Timber full-height doors are present throughout, and good-quality original wooden fitted furniture remains. An emphasis on flexibility is evident, with sliding partitions and dressing rooms that function as corridors when not in use. The living room has an open fire with a free-standing conical copper hood. A timber staircase leads to the greenhouse/bedroom above. The studio features high ceilings with the monopitch roof expressed internally. It is very light, with a large arched window overlooking the garden and a partially glazed roof, in addition to courtyard windows.